Meeting Abstract
P1.108 Monday, Jan. 4 An Ethanol-Induced Hormetic Stress Response in Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Brain Tissue HRANITZ, J.M.*; ABRAMSON, C.I.; CARTER IV, R.P.; Bloomsburg Univ. PA; Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater; Bloomsburg Univ. PA jhranitz@bloomu.edu
Previous research on the honey bee ethanol model established how acute ethanol exposure altered function at different levels of organization. Our goal was to evaluate whether or not ethanol doses that alter honey bee behavior also induce a significant stress response, measured by heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) concentrations, in the honey bee brain. Experiment 1 evaluated how pretreatment procedures affected brain HSP70 concentrations in three pretreatment groups of bees. HSP70 concentrations were similar among pretreatment groups. Experiment 2 investigated the relationship between ethanol dose and brain HSP70 concentrations. Bees were placed in seven experimental groups, the three pretreatment groups and four ethanol-fed groups. Bees in ethanol treatments were fed 1.5 M sucrose (control) and 1.5 M sucrose-ethanol solutions containing 2.5%, 5%, and 10% ethanol, allowed to sit for four hours, and dissected brains were assayed for HSP70. We observed ethanol-induced increases in honey bee brain HSP70 concentrations from the control group through the 5% ethanol group. Only bees in the 5% ethanol group had HSP70 concentrations significantly higher than the control group. The inverted U-shaped ethanol dose – HSP70 concentration response curve indicated that ingestion of 2.5% ethanol and 5% ethanol stimulated the stress response whereas ingestion of 10% ethanol inhibited the stress response. Doses that show maximum HSP70 concentration (5% ethanol) or HSP70 inhibition (10% ethanol) correspond to those (≥ 5% ethanol) that also impaired honey bees in previous studies. We conclude that acute ethanol intoxication by solutions containing ≥ 5% ethanol causes significant ethanol-induced stress in brain tissue that impairs honey bee behavior and associative learning.
